What We Do

We Are Global - Gay Games Change The World

The international Federation of Gay Games (FGG) is the global governing body for the quadrennial Gay Games, the world’s largest sports and cultural event open to all. The FGG is responsible for oversight and ensuring the continued production of the Gay Games.

Since 1982, the quadrennial Gay Games have taken place in six countries, selected by the Assembly in an extensive process, including Paris, France in 2018. The thousands of participants in the Gay Games have come from more than 70 countries, and marketing materials are regularly produced in multiple languages (eight and counting).

Board and Assembly members of the FGG have come from dozens of countries on six continents. The FGG is an all-volunteer, transparent non-profit organisation, with open elections. Having been started by Olympian Dr. Tom Waddell after his experiences at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, there can be little doubt that “Gay Games Change The World.”

We Are Givers

The FGG raises funds to bring people to the Gay Games.

Since 1986, Gay Games Scholarships have been awarded to nearly 1,000 underfunded individuals from 70 countries, providing a life-changing week of acceptance and encouragement that the recipients would never have experienced otherwise.

Fundraising to help these brave artists and athletes never ends; please donate to the Scholarship Fund today.

The Gay Games has also given back to non-profit organizations in host cities, leaving lasting legacies, most recently following Gay Games 9 in Cleveland + Akron in 2014. Additional gifts to FGG member organizations are the “Red Books” that govern the details of Gay Games sports and cultural events. These member organizations use the “Red Books” to build their structures and guide their events.

We Are Pioneers

The Gay Games change the world by challenging sports bodies, media, and governments to create more opportunities for athletes regardless of gender, age, ability, or physical challenge. Notable examples are in areas such as:

A breakthrough transgendered inclusion policy that the Olympics and others now follow;

Great expansion in women’s sports, where the Gay Games offered multiple wrestling weight classes for women 10 years before the Olympics;

Welcoming of participants with HIV / AIDS, who regularly achieve their personal best;

Anti-doping policies that enable athletes on medication to participate in the Gay Games;

To address the needs of younger and older participants (some of whom have been coming to the Gay Games since 1982), multiple age-based categories have been created in more than 14 sports.